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The Wiz Live!
The Wiz Live! is a television special that aired live on NBC on December 3, 2015. Produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, it is a performance of a new adaptation of the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz, a soul/R&B reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. The broadcast is performed live from Grumman Studios in Bethpage, New York. About it The story begins in Kansas on Aunt Em's farm. Two of her farm helpers are fixing an old fence, while the other gets chased by Toto. Aunt Em's niece, Dorothy Gale, chases after Toto. The farm help soon discover about Dorothy's repeated attempt to run away to her birthplace in Omaha, Nebraska, but before anything else could be said, Aunt Em follows after her. Dorothy tells Aunt Em that she wants to return back to her old home, but Aunt Em reminds Dorothy that she can't, because her old apartment was vacated after the death of her parents. Aunt Em tells Dorothy it's better staying with her then being back in Omaha. Aunt Em warns Dorothy that a storm is approaching close, but it's too late for Dorothy. She and the farmhouse get caught in the storm. Dorothy finally lands in Munchkinland. The munchkins surround Dorothy, informing her that her house flattened Evermean the wicked witch of the east. They celebrate and rejoice of the death of the witch, which gets the attention of Addapearle the good witch of the north, who was just passing through until she was almost hit by the house. She thanks Dorothy, but Dorothy is still confused, and still wanting to go home, to Omaha. Addapearle and the munchkins tell her to go ask the wizard for help. Addapearle gives Dorothy Evermean's silver shoes and a kiss on the forehead for protection. Addapearle soon disappears, and the munchkins tell Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to get to the wiz's home in the emerald city. They also warn her to look out for winged warriors, kalidahs, poppies, and Evermean's vengeful sister, Evillene the wicked witch of the west. As Dorothy leaves Munchkinland, she thinks about all the strange things she could encounter in the land of Oz. Dorothy continues her journey until she comes across a talking scarecrow, who asks Dorothy if she has any money in order to buy him some brains. The crows surrounding the scarecrow begin to intrude in the conversation, and begin to bully him. Dorothy scares them off and lets him off his pole. She invites him to see the wiz in order to get a brain. The duo eventually across a junkyard, where they find the tin man, rusted up from a rainstorm. He asks for oil so he can move. Once he is oiled up and lubricated, Dorothy gets curious and asks why he is made of tin. He recalls that he was once a normal man who was in love with a woman named Bertha. But Evermean also had a crush on him. When Evermean saw him and Bertha kissing in the forest, she furiously turned him metal, causing him to literally lose his heart. Dorothy, feeling sorry, invites him along to ask the wiz for a heart. He refuses at first, thinking Evermean is still watching him. Dorothy soon tells him that the witch is dead, and she is responsible for it. He gratefully joins her and the scarecrow. They soon wander into the forest where they run into the cowardly lion. He appears big and ferocious until Dorothy punches him. He then feels embarrassed and sad. Dorothy and her friends begin to feel sorry for the poor creature, so they invite him along to get some courage. The travelers all soon get tired and get off track of the road. The scarecrow decides they all should each go in different directions to find the road. But before Dorothy could find the road, she hears a familiar voice. It was the voice and image of her deceased mother wanting the silver shoes. Dorothy believes this is her actual mother and obeys. Before she gives her mother the shoes, the tin man runs towards Dorothy, telling Dorothy it's not her mother, but a kalidah after the shoes. Soon an entire group of kalidahs attack Dorothy, the scarecrow, and the tin man, who fight off the creatures while the lion hides. Once they fight all the kalidahs off, Dorothy thanks her friends, but before Dorothy thanks the lion, the tin man, now angered, starts taunting him for his cowardice. Dorothy begins to cheer the lion up. All happy again, the four walk on the road towards the poppy fields, where the poppy girls try and seduce them all. The scarecrow and tin man nearly fall into their trap seeing the beautiful ladies. Knowing how truly dangerous they are, The lion tells everyone to hide and stay away while he handles the poppy girls. After he dances with the ladies, he ties them all up. The lion and his friends proceed to walk to the emerald city. Dorothy and her friends make it to the emerald city, where they meet the bouncer. He refuses to let them in until Dorothy shows the silver shoes, and explains that she received them from Addaperle after killing Evermean. After Dorothy and her friends ask the citizens where the wiz is, the citizens soon see Dorothy's shoes, and point her towards the wiz. Dorothy and her friends enter the room of the wiz, where he greets them. He asks them what they want from him. The wiz first hears the requests from the lion, the scarecrow, and Dorothy. When Dorothy tells the wiz about her plans to leave her Aunt Em's farm for Omaha, the wiz tells her that she can't go home until she decides which of those two places is her true home. The tin man finally asks for a heart, and after the wiz asks him why, the tin man tells him what would he do if he could feel. The wiz agrees to grant their wishes, on one condition. They must kill Evillene, who is planning to conquer all of Oz. Before they could refuse the offer, the wizard vanishes. The lion, tin man and scarecrow refuse to go, but Dorothy encourages them. In the Winkie Factory, the head winkie informs one of the workers that Evillene now owns the factory. Evillene enters and asks for the news after expressing her hatred for all the water leaking everywhere. After hearing about Dorothy coming to kill her, she sends her winged warriors out to capture the girl and her friends. Once captured, Dorothy and the lion are put to work. Meanwhile, Evillene tries to get the silver shoes from Dorothy. Dorothy refuses, which angers the witch. She calls in her dinner, prompting the winkies bring out the scarecrow and tin man, and tie up the lion. The witch threatens to make a fire with the scarecrow, turn the tin man into a cooking pot, and cut and boil the lion into forest lion stew. This gets Dorothy so angry that she throws a bucket of water on the witch. Evillene screams in fear as she soon melts away. The winkies, along with Dorothy and her friends, rejoice in the death of the witch. Dorothy and her friends return to the emerald city. The bouncer won't let them in this time, saying the wiz banned them from entering ever again. So the scarecrow tricks the bouncer, allowing him and the others to sneak inside the wiz's room. While Dorothy speaks with the wiz through his giant robot head, the lion discovers the true person behind the wiz. The wiz turns out to be a fake, and not even a man, but a woman. She tells them her story, that she was once a magician's assistant from Omaha. By night they'd perform magic, but during the day they would give rides in a hot air balloon. She loved her job, but hated her boss. So in order to teach him a lesson, she left in the balloon without him one day, planning to land back down after he learned not to mistreat her. However, she got caught in a storm, and before she knew it, she was in Oz. When the emerald city citizens saw her, they thought she was a wizard coming to save them from the wicked witches. Back in the present, the wiz tells Dorothy's friends they had what they wanted all along. Then the scarecrow asks the wiz if she could take Dorothy home in her balloon. The wiz refuses at first, but after Dorothy persuades her to abandon her life of deception and solitude, she offers to bring Dorothy back to Omaha. Dorothy quickly accepts. Before the wiz leaves for Omaha, she says goodbye to the citizens. Dorothy soon realizes that she doesn't want to go to Omaha, but back to Kansas with Aunt Em, and allows the wiz to leave without her. Addapearle appears once more and realizes Dorothy has learned her lesson. Dorothy, now feeling exhausted, wishes to go home, so Addapearle calls in her sister Glinda, the good witch of the south. Glinda greets Dorothy, telling her that she's been watching her the whole time she was in Oz. Glinda reveals to Dorothy that she always had the power to go home, and advises the girl to click her heels three times and think of home. After the two witches and the citizens leave, Dorothy says goodbye to her new friends, then thinks of her home in Kansas. Dorothy clicks her heels, and before she knows it, Toto runs into her arms, and Aunt Em kisses her to welcome her back home. Cast of characters Common as the bouncer Amber Riley as Addaperle the good witch of the north Uzo Aduba as Glinda the good witch of the south Stephanie Mills as Aunt Em Elijah Kelley as the scarecrow / Sticks (farmhand #3) Ne-Yo as the tin man / John (farmhand #1) David Alan Grier as the cowardly lion / Robert (farmhand #2) Mary J. Blige as Evillene the wicked witch of the west Shanice Williams as Dorothy Gale Queen Latifah as the wiz Trivia Songs from the original Broadway production were featured, with two exceptions: "You Can't Win", a song cut from the musical and first used in its 1978 feature film adaptation as sung by Michael Jackson, was used in place of the scarecrow's key number "I Was Born On The Day Before Yesterday", and "We Got It", a new song composed by Harvey Mason Jr. Category:The Wizard Of Oz